View report page

97
matically throughout the borough; but individual cases only are dealt with as they arise out of
casual or special inspections, or house-to-house inspection. The Special Committee on Nottingdale,
in their report (June 18th, 1896), stated that the yards in the "special area" were "saturated
with human ordure and filth of every description." The Committee were of opinion "that the
yards should be asphalted or paved," and the first of their recommendations, all of which were
approved by the late Yestry, was to the effect—
"That it be referred to the Works and Sanitary Committee to have notices served upon the
owners or occupiers of the houses in the several streets . requiring them to asphalte,
or pave with impervious material, the yards in the rear of such houses which are not in
proper condition."
Effect has, in a measure, been given to this recommendation.
The paving of yards is one of the matters dealt with in the Council's by-laws, the tenthby-law
requiring, in respect of "any yard or open space, where it is necessary for the prevention
or remedy of insanitary conditions that all or part of such yard or open space shall be paved,"
that it be paved forthwith, by the owner of the dwelling-house with which such yard or open
space is connected. It will be observed that the paving of yards is prescribed "for the prevention
or remedy of insanitary conditions," a fact which is too often lost sight of. That paving
is "necessary" for this purpose is indubitable, and the subject is deserving of the attention of
sanitary authorities, by whom, generally, more, assuredly, would be done if due weight were
attached to the hygienic importance of cleanliness and dryness in the surroundings of dwellinghouses—a
matter to which attention was specially directed in my annual report for 1897 (page
146), the authority of the late medical officer of the Local Government Board being cited in
support of the views therein expressed.
In connection with the subject, reference may be made to the rubbish not infrequently
found in yards of houses let in tenements to the poorer classes: broken bedsteads, rotten straw
palliasses, and other things of no value, once the "property," it may be, of dead or departed
lodgers. In the report for 1889 it was observed that it is nobody's business to remove the
things, which simply serve as harbourage for collections of filth." The yards where they exist
cannot be properly cleansed, and might fairly be regarded as premises "in such a state as to be
a nuisance or dangerous to health." The importance of the matter is lost sight of in ordinary
times, but let there be a cholera scare, and everybody recognises the necessity of that general
clearance of filth and litter which should be effected systematically at all times.
In October, 1900, the late Yestry, upon my recommendation, appointed six temporary sanitary
inspectors for a few weeks, whose chief duty, in house-to-house inspections, was to enforce a
general clean-up of premises; an instruction, moreover, was issued, authorising the surveyor to
remove from yards (with the necessary consents) all useless articles, rubbish, &c. A good deal
of work of the kind was done; but unremitting attention is necessary to the attainment of the
object in view; to wit, the maintenance of cleanliness in the surroundings of dwelling-houses—
an object of much importance from the public health point of view; "dirt"—defined by the late
Lord Palmerston as "matter in the wrong place "—being a fertile source of unhealthiness, and
conducive to disease.
HYGIENIC STREET PAYING.
During the year further progress was made in the paving with asphalte of streets in poor
localities, where traffic is small; such streets, moreover, being largely used by children as playgrounds.
This practice, commenced in the Potteries district some years since, and subsequently
carried out completely in the "Notting-dale" special area, with great and manifest advantage,
should be largely extended. During 1901 the following streets, etc., were paved with this
material:-Convent-gardens, Gorham-place, Sirdar-road, Princes-place, Ashley-cottages, and
the approach road, Shaftesbury-road, Cottage-place, and Brompton Churchyard: the cost of the
work executed was about £3,400—exclusive of what was expended on reparation of footways. In
each of the roads named syphon-trapped pan gullies were substituted for brick gullies with flaptraps,
and wherever practicable, sewer ventilators at road level were abolished, and ventilating
pipes were carried up the fronts of adjacent buildings, the whole work thus constituting a great
sanitary improvement.
t.

In 115 of the above cases post-mortem examinations were made under the coroner's warrant.